My suggestion would be to retire now but not relocate. The cost of living in MN is much higher than where you are, and the weather is brutal for much of the year. It might be worth it if you're likely to see family very frequently, but if they have their own lives and schedules and you're realistically not going to spend all that much time with them on a day to day basis, you might regret being in such a frankly unpleasant climate environment for much of the year (the nice mid-Westerners there notwithstanding). The money you save by remaining in TN could pay for several trips up there annually and you can actually do things outdoors the rest of the year besides ice fishing and cross-country skiing.

- Full time tenure track position.
- Will solve health insurance issue for few years.
- Add some roth and get some 401k match
- Closer to family.
- May be its just me but I would be more comfortable with delaying full 3% draw down from the $3.5 Mill.
- Teaching can be a ramp down before you completely retire.

How out of touch do you have to be to wonder if you can move to a lower paying career when you're already financially independent? By my calculations, you could take a career where you had to pay money to do it.

And then there are people saying, "No, you don't have enough. Don't do it."

THE OP HAS $3.5M AND SPENDS LESS THAN $100K A YEAR. That's FI by any reasonable measurement.

Take option 1, option 2, or some other option that involves not earning anything and you'll be fine. Do what you want. You already won the game.

Try this approach:

# 1 Define Enough
# 2 Compare what you have to enough

If you have more than enough, do what you want. If you don't but hate your job, switch jobs.

+1

“If you can get good at destroying your own wrong ideas, that is a great gift.” – Charlie Munger